Music Director: Agnes Grossmann

"Acclaimed conductor with whom music has regained its rightful place, the first" (J.J.van Vlasselaer), Agnes Grossmann has been, in the twenty year span of her conducting career, Artistic Director of several illustrious organizations: Wiener Singakademie (1983-1986), Chamber Players of Toronto (1984-1990), Orchestre et Choeurs Metropolitain de Montreal (1986-1995), Orford Arts Centre (1989-1995), Principal Guest Conductor of ProCoro Canada, Edmonton, Alberta (1995-1997), and the Vienna Choir Boys (1996-1998).

In addition, she has guest conducted orchestras and choirs in Canada, Japan, and Europe, including the Orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Canadian Chamber Ensemble, the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa and the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra, the Arcadia Orchestra and Choir in Osaka, Japan, the Osaka Philharmonic, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Agnes Grossmann started her career as a pianist touring the USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Japan with Columbia Artists Management.

In 1972 she won the Mozart Interpretation Prize in Vienna. As the result of a hand injury Ms. Grossmann was forced to abandon her pianistic career, and she soon turned her attention to conducting.

Since that time, "Her profound, inborn musicianship and irresistible temperament" (Gerhard Rosenthaler, Vienna), has had her conquering her public wherever she has concertized.

By 1987, the City of Montreal named her "Woman of the Year in the Arts". Ms. Grossmann has received many honors since that time, including the Silver Cross for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts from the Austrian Government in 1992; an Honorary Doctorate from Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; and the Golden Cross of the City of Vienna in 1995.

In 1996, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Vienna Choir Boys.

Within a year, following the 500th Anniversary Concert with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Chorus Viennensis in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, had "Kurier" critic Franz Endler exclaim "At last, finally we could hear that the Vienna Choir Boys is flourishing once again."

Agnes Grossmann rounded off the Celebrations with a resoundingly successful tour of the major North American concert halls including New York's Carnegie Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall and Washington's Kennedy Centre among others, thus "reclaiming the reputation of this organization to one of the highest order" (Gerhard Kramer, Die Presse, Vienna).

She launched the Children's Opera Series of the Vienna State Opera by conducting Krasa's "Brundibar".

Her educational reforms for the Institution included acceptance of girls in the Kindergarten, which created a worldwide positive echo.

She introduced a comprehensive educational program for the children.

In November 1998, she relinquished her position as Artistic Director of the Vienna Choir Boys because of the growing incompatibility with the Board of Directors on the method of financing and the goals of the Institution.

As of 1999, Agnes Grossmann resumed her international guest conducting career, conducting performances with ProCoro Canada (Edmonton), Arcadia Chamber Orchestra and Choir (Osaka, Japan), and a highly successful debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for whom she conducted the Mozart Requiem and Handel's Messiah.

In October 1999, she was asked to resume the Artistic Directorship of the Orford Arts Center, Canada’s oldest and most prestigious Summer Academy and Music Festival. Agnes Grossmann plans and organises this eight week Festival of Music, where she also conducts numerous operatic and concert performances.

Ever since 1989, Agnes Grossmann has returned to the podium of the Arcadia Chamber Orchestra and Chorus (Osaka) annually, conducting major sacred and secular choral works as well as orchestral concerts. In 1999, she made her debut with the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra and Choir of Taipei, Taiwan.

In 2001, she founded Ensemble Montreal which consists of a professional choir and orchestra, whose debut performance with Haydn’s Creation was nominated for a Prix Opus of the Quebec Council of Music in the category “Best Concert of the 2000-2001 season” in the Provice of Quebec.

This concert was a final triumphant performance of the Orford Arts Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Another major event for this occasion, was the performances of the Hofmannsthal/R. Strauss adaptation of Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme with Strauss’s incidental music and ending with the opera Ariadne auf Naxos.

Highlight of the 2002 season was the performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni which Agnes Grossmann conducted with Albert Millaire directing.

This was a production of the Orford Opera Studio she directs.

In Osaka, she performed Mozart’s C minor Mass with the participation of Ensemble Montreal Choristers joining Arcadia Chamber Choir and Orchestra in Izumi Hall on November 3rd.

On 31st December, she will conduct a New Year’s concert live on Radio Canada from Montreal.

2003 will find her frequently on the podium in Montreal including a concert of Haydn’s Seasons in February followed by his rarely performed Stabat Mater on April 6th, both with Ensemble Montreal.

The latter will be recorded and broadcast by the CBC.

In Orford she will conduct a production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” and a full theatrical production of Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with Mendelssohn’s incidental music.

In the 2003-04 season she will conduct Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” at the University of Toronto Opera Studio.

In addition, she will present Ensemble Montreal at the Steirische Herbst in Graz (Austria), as part of the Festivities marking the city’s tenure as European Cultural Capital.